For the Birthday Boy
My lack of writing time is starting to get to me. Recently I had the idea that perhaps I could figure out a way to keep a weekly schedule. We’ll see, it’s busy times around here. This past weekend we had a birthday party for our little boy who turned three yesterday. Three seems like a rather long time – as if certain things ought to be different by now. When following that train of thought, I’m realizing that the size of the increments by which I measure such changes determines whether I feel that my life is a continual stream of potential being realized or an ever increasing mount of challenges. I’m opting for the first perspective and therefore am learning to measure progress in very small steps. As is so often the case with mental exercise, the results are proving to be compounding. The more I focus on small improvements in my life, the more small improvements I notice and pretty soon things are looking pretty good (to borrow one of my son’s favorite phrases from a couple months back). So I’ve got my positive frame of mind going for me.
About ten days ago, my husband got sick. A couple days later I too became very congested. We’re both still sick and as far as I’m concerned it was pretty much the perfect set up for a perfect birthday celebration. It put things in perspective for me. Since three is the first year that my boy is actually enthusiastic about celebrating his birthday, I wanted to make it special. A little over two weeks ago I asked him how he wanted to celebrate his birthday. He replied that he wanted cake and a party and toys that would be inside presents that he opened. When I asked what kind of cake, he said strawberry. I love a party. I love to plan a party. I love baking birthday cakes. But I usually go overboard in some respect. I tend to be the sort of person that over works and over does. In this case my husband’s illness and my more mild cold demanded that I keep things simple. Sweet and simple. This meant that our boy enjoyed just the right amount of fun. Just the right amount of cake. Just the right amount of presents. Just the right amount of everything. And so did I. I managed to put on two lovely parties without completely running myself into the ground.
That’s my simple story. A sweet little reminder that sometimes what seems like a curse is really a blessing. And once we are in that frame of mind, blessings are abound.
Cake and Crown to his liking